The proposed changes to Brazil's pre-salt regulatory framework will likely include a state company to manage recently discovered oil reserves, mines and energy minister Edison Lobão told a conference on Wednesday.
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A government committee is analyzing five proposals to be submitted to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, according to Lobão.
The committee was due to meet on Wednesday, although a definitive decision will only be made after local elections scheduled for later this month.
"I think it's hard to avoid a state company in these five proposals," the minister told the event in Rio de Janeiro.
The new state firm would neither drill wells nor extract oil but rather hire federal energy company Petrobras (NYSE: PBR) or other firms as service suppliers.
"We had a 100% international discovery in the pre-salt recently. Do you think this represents the nation's interest?" Lobão said of US oil company Anadarko's (NYSE: APC) pre-salt discovery in the Campos basin.
Petrobras has made a number of major pre-salt discoveries this year in the Campos and Santos basins, including Tupi and Iara.
The regulatory framework change would also include areas with big discoveries and not just pre-salt, Lobão said.
"We are working with the idea of analyzing the volume of the oil and gas discoveries and not just their geographic position," he added.
